International Journal of Botany

and Research (IJBR)

ISSN(P): 2277-4815; ISSN (E): 2319-4456
Vol. 6, Issue 5, Dec 2016, 1-8
TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

FRUIT MORPHOLOGICAL VARIABILITY IN DIFFERENT COMMERCIAL

CULTIVARS AND LOCAL VARIETIES OF ANANAS COMOSUS (L.)
MERR. FROM KERALA
NISHA A P1 & P M RADHAMANY2
1

Research Scholar, Department of Botany University of Kerala, Kariavattom, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
2

Professor, Department of Botany, University of Kerala, Kariavattom, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

ABSTRACT
The pineapple, Ananas comosus (L.) Merr., is a perennial, herbaceous monocot of the family Bromeliaceae.
Fruit morphological characters were studied in 17 accessions of A. comosus which include commercial cultivars and
local varieties. Twenty three qualitative and nine quantitative traits of fruits were scored. The first principal component
accounted for 96.79% of phenotypic variation followed by the second for 1.06 % of variation. Major traits that accounted
for more variability in PC1, PC2 and PC3 include fruit shape, fruit colour when unripe, colour of crown attachment
area and crown shape. The UPGMA clustering method revealed two principal clusters which separated all accessions
and ACBR2 (accessions of Ananas commosus var. bracteatus red) are distantly placed among all other accessions.
The most closely related cultivars are Amritha and Mauritius in the phenogram. Accessions of cultivar Kew are grouped
together with MD2.
KEYWORDS: Ananas Comosus, Morphological Variability, Cultivar

Original Article

between Euclidean distances 0.358-1.395. Both cluster analysis and principal co-ordinate analysis revealed that ACBR1

Received: Oct 07, 2016; Accepted: Oct 31, 2016; Published: Nov 02, 2016; Paper Id.: IJBRDEC20161

INTRODUCTION
Pineapple [Ananas comosus (L.) Merr.] is an important tropical fruit crop in terms of economic value and
nutrition content. It belongs to the family Bromeliaceae (Bartholomew and Paull, 1986). It is widely cultivated in
tropical and sub tropical countries. Pineapple is a unique fruit for its appearance, delicate fragrance and excellent
flavour. Its fruit is consumed fresh and canned as a commercial product in many countries. Pineapple is an
important source of sugars, organic acids and some essential minerals for human nutrition and its quality of good
flavour, aroma, juiciness and sweetness is well known and appreciated by consumers (Hodgson and
Hodgson,1994). A. comosus consists of different cultivars showing many variations (Leal and Soule, 1977).
The terminal inflorescence develop into a multiple fruit or sorose composed of 50-200 fruitlets. The edible part of
the fruit mainly consists of the ovaries, the bases of the sepals and bracts, and the cortex of the axis
(Purseglove, 1972 and Bartholomew et al., 2003). The fruit shell is primarily composed of sepal and bract tissues
and the apices of the ovaries (Okimoto 1948). Pineapple shows both inter and intra varietal diversity in different
qualitative and quantitative fruit morphological characters.
The four major commercial cultivars in Kerala are Mauritius, Kew, MD2 and Amritha. In addition to this,
small scale cultivations of different local varieties are present in home yards. These commercial cultivars and local

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Nisha A P & P M Radhamany

varieties show lot of variations in fruit morphological characters. Analysis of morphological characters is a classical
approach to differentiate plant cultivars. The significance of morphological traits for the characterization of pineapple
cultivars were studied (Valencia and Alcasid, 2014). The importance of pomological characters to identify the local and
cultivated orange cultivars was reported (Debbabi et al., 2013). The morphological variation in fruit of sweet chestnut for
genetic diversity studies was reported (Atefe et al, 2015). The present study aims at analyzing the fruit morphological
variations in different cultivars and local varieties of Ananas comosus from Kerala. Also it is targeted to evaluate the
reliability of the fruit morphological characters and their relevance for the identification of particular varieties.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In the present study, different accessions of the four commercial cultivars and two local varieties of pineapple
were collected from different localities of Kerala and maintained in the experimental field, located at the Department of
Botany, University of Kerala, Kariavattom, Thiruvananthapuram. The collections consist of seven accessions of Ananas
comosus var. comosus cv. Mauritius, four accessions of Ananas comosus var. comosus cv. Kew, one accession of Ananas
comosus var. comosus cv. MD 2, one accession of Ananas comosus var. comosus cv. Amritha, two accessions of Ananas
comosus var. bracteatus- red and two accessions of Ananas comosus var. bracteatus- green. Specific codes were allotted to
each accession (Table 1). The voucher specimens of these accessions are deposited in the herbarium of the Department of
Botany, University of Kerala.
Observations on 23 qualitative traits (Table 2) and nine quantitative traits of fruits were scored in all accessions,
based on the descriptors developed by International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR, Rome) for Pineapple.
The quantitative traits recorded are the following; fruit weight (FRW), fruit height (FRH), fruit diameter (FRD), number of
fruitlets (NFLTS), eye number (EN), number of right pointing spirals (NRPS), number of left pointing spirals (NLPS), eye
number in the longest spiral (ENLS) and number of fruit basal slips (NFBSLPS).
The data on both qualitative and quantitative traits were recorded on ten fruits in each accession. In morphometric
analysis, one way ANOVA and Duncan multiple range test were performed. Multivariate analysis was performed by
numeric taxonomic techniques using the procedure of principal component analysis. To bring out the patterns of similarity
and dissimilarity, data was subjected to cluster analysis based on UPGMA method to group the 17 accessions. Principal co
ordinate analysis (PCoA) followed by construction of scatter plots was also performed. SPSS version 16 and Multivariate
statistical package MVSP Version 3.1 were used for statistical analysis.

RESULTS
Analysis of Variance
Analysis of variance carried out on different quantitative data showed significant variation (p <0.05) among the 17
accessions studied (Table 3). Fruit weight was significantly (p<0.05) high in ACBR1 followed by ACK1 and low in ACM4.
But fruit height was high in ACM4 and low in ACBR2. Regarding the fruit diameter, ACK2 and ACBG1 showed the
highest average while ACBG2 showed the lowest average. Number of fruitlets, Eye number and number of right pointing
spirals are significantly high in ACM1. But these characters showed the lowest average in ACBR2. Considering the
number of left pointing spirals, ACK3 showed the highest value. ACM7 showed the highest eye number in the longest
spiral. In the case of number of fruit basal slips, it showed the highest average in ACBG 1. Fruit basal slips are completely
absent in all accessions of cultivar Kew and MD2.
Impact Factor (JCC): 2.6392

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 6.1

Fruit Morphological Variability in Different Commercial Cultivars and

Local Varieties of Ananas comosus (L.) Merr. from Kerala

Principal Component Analysis

In principal component analysis, the first principal component accounted maximum variation (96.79%). The first
principal component had traits with highest loadings are fruit height, fruit diameter, number of fruitlets, eye number,
number of right pointing spirals, number of left pointing spirals, eye number in the longest spiral, fruit shape, fruit colour
when unripe, fruit colour when unripe, fruit colour after ripening, colour of crown attachment area, crown shape, flesh
colour and flesh fibrousness.
The second principal component accounted for 1.06% of variation with highest loadings are fruit shape, fruitlet
shape, fruit colour when unripe, eye profile, orientation of the longest spiral, fruit external aroma, crown attachment, colour
of crown attachment area, crown shape, attitude of crown foliage, flesh colour, flesh fibrousness, flesh aroma, seediness
and eye depth. The third principal component accounted for 0.79% of variation with number of fruit basal slips, fruit shape,
crown attachment, crown shape, attitude of crown foliage, seediness are the characters which shows dominance in
variability. Major traits that accounted for more variability in PC1, PC2 and PC3 include fruit shape, fruit colour when
unripe, colour of crown attachment area and crown shape. The highest loaded variables in PC1, PC2 and PC3 were number
of fruit lets (0.472), eye number (0.472), fruit shape (0.319) and seediness (0.384). Hence fruit characters are important in
distinguishing various accessions of A. comosus.
Cluster Analysis
UPGMA cluster analysis with 32 variables revealed two principal clusters which separated all the accessions at a
Euclidean distance of 1.395(Figure 1). In the first principal cluster, the morphotypes of A. comosus var. bracteatus red
(ACBR1 and ACBR2) are clustered together at a distance of 0.819. These were the most distantly placed among all the
accessions.
The second principal cluster consists of three groups, the first group consists of ACBG1 and ACBG2, they are
clustered together at a distance of 0.358. The second group was the largest with eight accessions. It consists of ACM2,
ACM1, ACM6, ACM7, ACA1, ACM5, ACM3 and ACM4. They are clustered together due to the presence of projected
fruit lets, good fruit colour homogeneity after ripening, presence of spines on the margins of the crown leaves, flesh
fibrousness and deep eye. In this phenogram the more closely related cultivars are ACM2, ACM1, ACM6, ACM7 and
ACAI (Euclidean distance 0.927) due to the presence of long conical crown.
In the third group, ACMD1, ACK1, ACK4, ACK2 and ACK3 are clustered together at a distance of 0.999 due to
the presence of broad fruit lets, medium fruit colour homogeneity after ripening, presence of spines only at the tip of crown
leaves, intermediate amount of flesh fibres and medium flesh aroma. But ACMD1 is distinct from other four accessions in
having small eye profile, absence of external aroma, crown attachment to the fruit with short distinct neck, oblong blocky
crown shape and shallow eye depth.
Principal co- ordinate Analysis (PCoA)
In PCoA, the ACBR1 and ACBR2 (accessions of Ananas comosus var. bracteatus-red) are the most distantly
placed among all other accessions. The accessions of cultivar Mauritius showed close association with cultivar Amritha
and accessions of cultivar Kew showed close association with MD2. Hence the principal co- ordinate analysis supports the
results of cluster analysis.

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Nisha A P & P M Radhamany

DISCUSSIONS
The present study helps to identify the pineapple cultivars in Kerala. The analysis of morphological characteristics
in pineapple is employed to differentiate cultivars and selection of parents for conventional hybridization for desirable
traits. Debbabi et al (2013), Zaouay and Mars (2011) reported the importance of the pomological characteristics to assess
genetic diversity and cultivar relationships among Citrus cultivars and identification of pomegranate accessions
respectively.
The cluster and principal component analysis on fruit morphological characters revealed the existence of
variability among the different accessions of pineapple cultivars. Based on PCA, it is clear that the percentage of variation
was very high, suggesting that the fruit morphological characters studied were efficient for pineapple cultivar
characterization. Similar studies were reported in characterization of local germ plasm of Figure (Saddoud et al., 2008) and
Olive tree (Hennachi et al, 2008). In PC1, the external fruit morphological characters such as fruit height, fruit diameter,
number of fruit lets, eye number, number of right pointing spirals, number of left pointing spirals, eye number in the
longest spiral, fruit shape, fruit colour when unripe, fruit colour when unripe, fruit colour after ripening showed high
variability than the crown characters. At the same time crown characters are also highlighted in PC2. Valencia and Alcasid
(2014) reported the importance of fruit morphological characters in identification of pineapple cultivars. De Souza et al
(2012) also reported the significance of morphological characters for the identification and classification of pineapple with
ornamental potential.

CONCLUSIONS
Fruit morphological analysis of different pineapple cultivars and local varieties showed diversity within the germ
plasm. This analysis is very useful for its collection, cultivation and use in future crop improvement programmes such as
selection and hybridization. Only the fruit morphological characters are not enough to identify pineapple cultivars. So the
biochemical as well as molecular markers are required to evaluate the variability among the cultivars.
Table 1: Details of Collection of Ananas comosus from Various Localities
Sl. No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

Impact Factor (JCC): 2.6392

Accession Code
ACM1
ACM2
ACM3
ACM4
ACM5
ACM6
ACM7
ACK1
ACK2
ACK3
ACK4
ACMD1
ACA1
ACBR1
ACBR2
ACBG1
ACBG2

Accession Name
Chadayamangalam
Vazhakkulam
Mannuthy
Kanjar
Thiruvampady
Thiruvalla
Puthezham
Chadayamangalam
Vazhakkulam
Mannuthy
Seethathode
Vazhakkulam
Mannuthy
Kottarakkara
Kollam
Kottarakkara
Ayur

Genetic Group
Ananas comosus cv. Mauritius
A. comosus cv. Mauritius
A. comosus cv. Mauritius
A.comosus cv. Mauritius
A.comosus cv. Mauritius
A. comosus cv. Mauritius
A. comosus cv. Mauritius
A. comosus cv. Kew
A.comosus cv. Kew
A. comosus cv. Kew
A. comosus cv. Kew
A. comosus cv. MD 2
A. comosus cv. Amritha
A.comosus var. bracteatus- red
A. comosus var. bracteatus- red
A. comosus var. bracteatus- green
A. comosus var. bracteatu- green

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 6.1

Fruit Morphological Variability in Different Commercial Cultivars and

Local Varieties of Ananas comosus (L.) Merr. from Kerala

Table 2: List of Qualitative Variables Evaluated for the Study of

Fruit Morphological Variability in A. comosus
Ref. No.

Character Description

1.

Fruit shape

2.
3.

Type of fruit
Fruitlet shape

4.

Fruit colour when unripe

5.

Fruit colour when ripe

7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

Fruit colour homogeneity when

ripe
Eye profile
Eye relative surface
Orientation of the longest spiral
Fruit external aroma
Presence of crown
Crown attachment

13.

Colour of crown attachment area

14.

Crown shape

15.

Attitude of crown foliage

16.

Colour of crown leaves

17.
18.

Presence of spines on crown leaves

Crown character

19.

Flesh colour

20.

Flesh fibrousness

21.
22.
23.

Flesh aroma
Seediness
Eye depth

6.

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Descriptor States
0-square like, 1-oval, 2-round, 3-conical, 4-long conical, 5pyramidal, 6- cylindrical slight tapers, 7- cylindrical sharp tapers,
8-pyriform, 9-reniform, 10-oblong.
0-Grouped fruitlets, 1-isolated fruits.
0-shallow, 1-broad, 2-projected.
0-silvery green, 1- green, 2- dark green, 3-dark blackish green, 4light green, 5-orange red, 6- red, 7- pink, 8-red purplish, 9- dark
red purple, 10-purple, 11-purple blue.
0-Green, 1- silvery green, 2- yellow with green mottling, 3- dull
yellow, 4-bright yellow, 5- golden yellow, 6- deep yellow to
orange, 7- reddish orange, 8- brownish.
0-poor, 1- medium, 2-good
0-flat, 1-normal, 2- prominent
0-small, 1-medium,2-large
0-left, 1-right, 2-vertical.
0-absent, 1-mild, 2-pleasant, 3- excellent.
0-absent, 1- present.
0-with sessile neck, 1-with short distinct neck.
0-yellow, 1- silvery green, 2-green, 3-dark green, 4- green with
orange mottling, 5-silvery green with red mottling, 6-light
orange, 7-light or dark red, 8- pink,9-red purplish.
0-cone,1-oblong blocky, 2- acron, 3-long conical, 4- lengthened
cylindrical, 5- lengthened cylindrical with bunchy top, 6- other.
0-erect, 1-semi erect, 2- horizontal, 3-drooping.
0-green, 1- green with yellow mottling, 2- silvery green with red
mottling, 3- reddish orange, 4-reddish green, 5- dark red, 6pinkish, 7-pink, 8-silvery white,9- silvery green.
0-smooth, 1- spines at the tip, 2- spiny serrate, 3- piping.
0-normal, 1-multiple, 2-single with crown lets.
0-white,1-light cream, 2-cream, 3-pale yellow, 4-yellow, 5-golden
yellow, 6-deep golden yellow, 7-light orange, 8-deep orange, 9other.
0-almost non fibrous, 1- small amount of fibre, 2-intermediate
amount of fibre,3- fibrous.
0-hardly any aroma,1- medium aroma, 2- rich aroma
0-no seeds, 1-few, 2- medium, 3-very seedy
0-shallow,1- medium, 2-deep.

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Nisha A P & P M Radhamany

Table 3: Quantitative Fruit Morphological Characters of Different Accessions of A. comosus

Table 4: Principal Component Analysis in 17 Accessions of A. comosus, Eigen Values, Eigen Vectors and
Percent of Variation Accounted by the First Three Principal Components (Highly Loaded
Variables in Combined Analysis Given and Significant PC Values Indicated in Bold Face)
Variables
FRW
FRH
FRD
NFLTS
EN
NRPS
NLPS
ENLS
NFBSLPS
FRS
FRLS
FRCU
FRCR
FCHR
EP
ERS
OLS
FEA
CA
CCA
CS
ACF
CCL
PS
FC
FFB
FA
SD
ED
Impact Factor (JCC): 2.6392

PC1
0.075
0.273
0.245
0.472
0.472
0.243
0.231
0.273
0.038
0.171
0.081
0.101
0.184
0.099
0.083
0.07
0.024
0.093
0.037
0.139
0.12
0.046
0.042
0.099
0.154
0.123
0.079
0.025
0.083

PC2
-0.06
-0.045
-0.062
0.021
0.022
0.036
-0.084
0.009
-0.052
0.319
0.17
-0.422
-0.083
0.043
0.14
-0.018
-0.144
0.236
0.151
-0.241
-0.481
-0.281
-0.008
0.043
0.144
0.154
0.269
-0.165
0.144

PC3
0.004
0.045
-0.042
-0.05
-0.05
0.079
-0.144
-0.025
0.557
0.364
-0.25
-0.199
-0.112
0.095
-0.029
-0.01
-0.186
-0.017
0.196
-0.128
0.202
0.227
0.032
0.095
0.056
0.058
-0.056
0.384
0.008
Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 6.1

Fruit Morphological Variability in Different Commercial Cultivars and

Local Varieties of Ananas comosus (L.) Merr. from Kerala

Table 4: Contd.,
Eigen values
19.751
0.215
Percent variation
96.79
1.06
Cumulative percentage
96.79
97.84

0.161
0.79
98.63

Figure 1: UPGMA Phenogram Based on Qualitative and Quantitative Characters

Figure 2: PCoA Based on Qualitative and Quantitative Characters

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Atefe, K.., Kambiz, T. A., and Javad, T. (2015). Variations in leaf and fruit morphological traits of sweet chestnut (Castanea
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Bartholomew, D. P., and Paull,R.E. (1986). Pineapple. In: Monselise, S.P. (ed) CRC Handbook of fruitset and development.
Boca raton, Florida:CRC Press Inc. 568pp.

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Bartholomew, D. P., Paull, R. E., Rohrbach, K. G. (2003). The pineapple: botany, production and uses. Bartholomew, D P.,
Paull, R.E., Rohrbach, K G(eds.). CABI Publishing, Wallingford. UK. Pp 1-301.

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editor@tjprc.org

Nisha A P & P M Radhamany

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de Souza, E. H., Souza, F. V. D., de Carvalho Costa, M. A. P., Costa Jr. D. S., dos Santos Serejo, J.A., Amorim, A. P and da
Silva Ledo, C. A.( 2012). Genetic variation of the Ananas genus with ornamental potential. Genet Resour Crop Evol. 59: 13571376.

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Debbabi, O S., Bouhlal, R., Abdelaali, N Mnasri, S and Mars M. (2013). Pomological study of Sweet Orange (Citrus sinensis
L. Osbeck) cultivars from Tunisia. International Journal of Fruit Science. 13. 274-284.

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Hennachi, H., Breton, C., Msallem, M, Ben E1 Hadj, S., E1Gazzah, M and Berville, A. ( 2008). Differences between introduced
and native Olive cultivars as revealed by morphology of drupes, oil composition and SSR polymorphisms- A case study in
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Hodgson, A S and Hodgson, L R. (1993). Pineapple Juice. In Fruit juice processing technology 1st edn. Nagy, S., Chen, C.S.
and Shaw, P E eds. Ag science, Inc. Auburndale, Florida,USA, pp.378-435.

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Leal, F. and Soule, J. (1977). Maipure, A new spineless group of pineapple cultivar. Hort. Science. 12: 301-305.

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Okimoto, M C. (1948). Anatomy and histology of the pineapple inflorescence and fruit. Botanical Gazette. 217-231.

10. Purseglove, J W. (1972). Tropical crops. Monocotyledons. Purseglove, J.W.(eds.) Longman, London.pp 75-91.
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Impact Factor (JCC): 2.6392

Index Copernicus Value (ICV): 6.1